There’s nothing quite as effortlessly cool or unabashedly romantic as jetting off in secret to tie the knot.

But what I love about today’s gorgeous real wedding (aside from the bride’s incredible dress!) is that it’s kind of the best of both.

With all the intimacy and excitement of an elopement, but with the special memories of having their families by their side, Jen & Matthew said their vows in Kauai, Hawaii – with just six guests in attendance.

Their emotional garden ceremony overlooking the ocean and dreamy sunset portrait session on the beach were captured by Sea Light Studios, and planned by Modern Elopement.

Feast your eyes on this stylish pair and their perfect day, and just see if they can persuade you to seriously shrink your guestlist…

Our Wedding

My husband and I chose to have a small intimate wedding for many reasons.

One of the most important reasons for us was to keep our wedding about us. We did not want to get caught up on the stress of making other people happy when a wedding should be about the bride and groom.

We knew our wedding day will be the most important day of our life and wanted to surround ourselves with the people that matter most.

We did not stress about a seating chart or having to invite certain people. We had six guests and no seating chart.

Having a small wedding allowed my husband and I to have enjoy our special day that was stress free and relaxed. The only thing I stressed about was the rain the morning of.

Hawaii did not let us down! We were blessed with gorgeous, vibrant rainbows as a ukulele player played “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” as I walked down the aisle.

An intimate wedding also allowed us to splurge on our family with a beautiful candlelight reception dinner at the St. Regis along with other activities throughout the trip, including luaus and sunset dinner cruises.

We had an amazing wedding/honeymoon as our families got to spend time together on the beautiful island of Kauai.

I can honestly say, I was the happiest and most stress free bride out of all the weddings I’ve been in.

A small intimate wedding was definitely one of the best decisions my husband and I made!